JOURNAL OF STRATEGIC MARKETING 5 127–141 (1997)
Towards culture-driven strategic
marketing planning: the use of
participatory action research
JIM SAKER AND GARETH SMITH
The Business School, Loughborough University, Ashby R oad, Loughborough, Leicestershire
LE11 3TU, UK
This paper grew out of work being undertaken to implement strategic marketing
planning (SMP ) in the not-for-profit sector. The work identified that, although the
terms m arketing and m arketing planning were in wide usage in these not-for-profit
organizations, the reality of their application was both mixed and patchy. This paper
explores the reasons for this low uptake and in so doing questions the appropriateness
of conventional marketing planning practices and their relation to the organization’s
culture. It then goes on to develop a contingency m odel and applies it to marketing
planning. In addition to the novel focus, it differs from m any other articles on SMP
by using social theory=organizational behaviour and generic strategic planning as
ways of developing new ‘insights’ into the debate.
KEYWORDS: strategic planning; marketing; culture; change
INTRODUCTION: CULTURE AS A BRAKE ON THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING
The argument for formalized planning in an organization has been based on the case that
those that do it outperform those that do not when compared against a range of criteria.
(Thomson, 1962; Leighton, 1966; Terpstra, 1972; Pearson, 1973 and Scheoeffler et al., 1974).
McDonald (1982) claimed that the marketing planning process also produced internal
advantages to the organization which allowed it to perform well against its competition.
These benefits came in the form of greater interfunctional coordination, greater control,
better motivation, higher levels of actionable market information and a greater acceptance of
the need for continuous change. Despite these proposed advantages a number of studies
indicate that the take up of formalized marketing planning is very low in the private sector
and considerably worse in the public sector (Hopkins, 1981; Hooley et al., 1984; Greenley,
1985, 1987, 1989; Verhage and Waarts, 1988; McColl-Kennedy et al., 1989 and Wittink and
Cattin, 1989). Greenley and Bayus (1994) summarized these findings when looking at
marketing planning practices in UK and USA companies as a multidimensional process. Their
results suggested that only 13% of the population studied could be described as sophisticated
in the way marketing planning decisions were made. Few companies used the techniques
prescribed in the marketing literature with the majority showing an adverse attitude to the
procedures that go to make up the marketing planning process. Hoskin and Wood (1993)
0965–254X # 1997 Chapman & Hall
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went further stating that even when plans are produced only 15% are actually implemented.
The question that stems from this debate is why have organizations shown such a reluctance
or inability to undertake marketing planning?
Harris (1996) looked at the barriers to the instigation of planning and concluded that this
was due to the absence of the initial idea to plan, an organizational ‘mindset’, ignorance and
anti-planning personnel. His use of the term mindset as oppposed to ‘culture’ is justified on
the basis that culture has ‘implicit connotations’. Similar findings were made by Leppard and
McDonald (1991) who identified a number of barriers to marketing planning, namely
cognitive, information, resource, behavioural and cultural barriers. McDonald (1996)
consolidated their argument by drawing on 11 studies dating back to 1966 and concluding
that the two biggest barriers are (1) cultural political–lack of a beleif in marketing planning
and=or the need to change and (2) cognitive–lack of knowledge and skills.
Although Leppard and McDonald (1991) did not attribute the rejection of marketing
planning to an organization’s cultural value system alone it is seen as critical, in particular in
relation to what they described as the organizations ‘cultural carriers’ who are in essence its
top management. That culture and values of the organization are of importance is supported
by Leppard and McDonald’s (1991) premise that the marketing planning process is not simply
a series of action steps. It is also seen to embody a set of values and assumptions which, while
not being explicit, are nevertheless an integral part of the whole process. The basis of this
analysis is that if the values held in the organization are contrary to those likely to facilitate
planning then the process will encounter major resistance and will fail. The link between
culture and cognition can also be postulated in that if the organization and its top
management do not espouse a culture which is conducive to planning then it is highly
unlikely that such techniques will be adopted.
Saker and Speed (1992) challenged the possible confusion between a non-planning culture
and an inefficient culture arguing that Leppard and McDonald (1991) had implied that an
organization’s culture should change to accommodate the planning process. The basis of their
criticism was the implication that a planning culture would be of necessity more efficient than
a non-planning one. Saker and Speed (1992) argued that in certain cases the culture of the
organization could be its major strength and it would be inappropriate to weaken this simply
to implement planning.
In response Leppard and McDonald (1992) asserted that their work concentrated on logical
rational models (thinking dominant) and, for those planning forms to be accepted, the
organization had to be reasonably sophisticated and mature. As part of their response two
further planning models were put forward, the pragmatic incremental approach (action
dominant) and the subjective visionary model (feeling dominant). It is argued that these two
models in fact describe more closely the planning practises found in many organizations. The
proposition that alternative planning approaches may be more appropriate in different
situations reflects the findings of many strategy process researchers. Eisenhard and Zbaracki
(1992) and Royagapalam et al. (1993) stated that traditional planning models like that
epitomized in conventional marketing planning texts are not good descriptions of
organizational decision making.
In raising the issue of culture and strategic marketing planning (SMP) Leppard and
McDonald (1992) reinforced previous calls from Mahajan et al. (1987) and Deshpande and
Webster (1989) who argued that the next phase of SMP must involve a formal integration of
organizational cultural issues. This paper attempts to move this debate forward by developing
a framework for doing this.
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CULTURAL AND ORGANIZATION THEORY
This section considers the major theoretical work on how culture may operate within its
organizational context. It seeks to integrate a number of the writings in this area and
synthesize these into a framework which can be used as a basis for the development of SMP.
Deshpande and Webster (1989) defined culture as the pattern of shared values and beliefs
that helps individuals understand organizational functioning and provides norms for behaviour
in the organization. Although other writers such as Pettigrew (1979), Schwartz and Davis
(1981) and Jelinek et al. (1983) suggested alternative variations, the main underpinning
remains that the culture is in some way a reflection of the views, beliefs or attitudes of the
people within an organization. There is, however, increasing complexity if one moves from
this broad overview into debates over culture and climate (Schneider and R eutsch, 1987),
subcultures (Wilkins and Ouchi, 1983), clans (Lebas and Weigenstein, 1986) and ‘native
views’ (Gregory, 1983).
In an attempt to simplify and provide theoretical guidance for researchers Deshpande and
Webster (1989) put forward five theoretical paradigms of organizational culture and their
implications for research methodology. These are outlined briefly in Table 1.
In the ‘comparative management approach’, culture can be viewed as a variable exogenous
to the firm, influencing the development and reinforcement of core beliefs and values within
the organization. The ‘contingency management perspective’ sees culture as an independent
variable endogenous to the firm consisting of beliefs and values developed by and within the
organization. The ‘organizational cognition approach’ concentrates on the need to understand
the shared knowledge and unique ways in which organization members perceive and organize
their world. The ‘organizational symbolism approach perceives’ the organization as a system
of shared meanings that provides a background against which organization members organize
TABLE 1. Theoretical features of organizational culture paradigms and implications for research methodology
Organizational
paradigm
Key theoretical features
1. Comparative
management
Grounded in functionalism
and classic management
theory
2. Contingency
Grounded in structural
management
functionalism and
contingency theory
3. Organizational Grounded in ethnoscience
cognition
and cognitive organization
theory
4. Organizational Grounded in symbolic
symbolism
anthropology and
symbolic organization
theory
5. Structural
Grounded in structuralism
psychodynamic
and transformational
perspective
organizational theory
Developed from Deshpande and Webster (1989).
Locus of culture
Methodological
implications
Exogenous, independent
and variable
Cross-sectional survey
research
Endogenous, independent
and variable
Culture as a metaphor for
organizational knowledge
systems
Culture as a metaphor for
shared symbols and
meanings
Cross-sectional survey
research or ethnographic
methods
Ethnographic or
phenomenological
research
Ethnographic or
phenomenological
research
Culture as a metaphor for
the unconscious mind
Ethnographic or historical
research
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and interpret their experience, looking for clues as to what constitutes appropriate behaviour.
In the fifth approach, the ‘structural=dynamic perspective’ views the organization as a form of
human expression rather than goal-oriented, problem-solving instruments.
The Deshpande and Webster (1989) framework goes a long way to synthesizing existing
work in this area. Their analysis and five paradigm framework sets a research agenda but on
their own admission is ‘explicitly interventionist’ when it comes to the implementation of
marketing practice. This is further supported by the fact that they distinguish between their
first two and subsequent three paradigms on the basis of their operationability. The limitations
of Deshpande and Webster’s (1989) approach lies in its inability to identify practical ways of
improving the uptake of SMP. The methodological implications they suggest can be
enhanced by drawing on Smirich’s (1983) critical variable, the ‘root metaphor’ continuum
and Morgan and Smirich’s (1980) ‘assumptions about ontology and human nature’. From this
perspective it is possible to identify three distinctive views of corporate culture, namely
managerialist, contingency and idiosyncratic. These three strands encapsulate the two extremes
of managerial intervention and ethnographic=phenomenological observation while suggesting
a middle ground which allows for a planning process that is shaped by the culture of the
organization. Imposing this framework on the Deshpande and Webster (1989) paradigms
produces a reclassification with the first paradigm being representative of the managerialist
approach while paradigms 3–5 come under the heading of idiosyncratic. The value of this
approach is that it allows a focus to fall on the middle ground between the two extremes
which corresponds to Deshpande and Webster’s (1989) second paradigm. The next section of
the paper gives an overview of the three perspectives and examines in more depth the
contingency approach to SMP. Breaking down Deshpande and Webster’s (1989) approach in
this way adds an extra, practical dimension to their ‘research methodology’-based paradigm.
THREE SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT ON CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT
Manag erial
The managerial school, as the name suggests, believes that culture can be managed – like a
dependent variable to be manipulated in pursuit of what Pascale (1990) refered to as ‘fit’ or
internal consistency in the pursuit of strategic synergy. This approach spawned writing in the
1980s which eventually led to the excellent literature which emphasized the potency of
normative ‘right answers’ as far as practitioners were concerned (Pascale and Athos, 1981;
Deal and Kennedy, 1982; Peters and Waterman, 1982; Sathe, 1985). In many circles, this
approach was criticized as taking a simplistic view of culture. Pettigrew (1979) argued that
corporate culture should not be regarded in a uniform one-dimensional manner. Whipp and
Clark (1986) critiqued this uniform view of culture by suggesting that a more pluralistic
approach was necessary. They put forward three dimensions to this, the first being that
culture is a collection of concepts which embrace diversity of expression. Secondly,
organizations are often found to be multicultural (Gregory, 1983; Pettigrew, 1985; Whipp
and Clark, 1986) and, thirdly, culture is not simply a conditioning device. Rather it is both a
shaper of human action and the outcome of a process of social creation and reproduction.
The managerial school is further weakened by Lundberg (1985) who noted ‘That culture
change in organisations does happen is agreed. That it can be stimulated by exogenous factors
is also strongly suggested. However whether or not managers can initiate and fully control
such change is disputed’ (p. 169).
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Idiosyncratic
The idiosyncratic school, so called because culture is seen as operating at the level of personal
perception, would echo and take further Lundberg’s (1985) final sentiment. Martin (1985)
found it ‘ridiculous to talk of managing culture. Culture cannot be managed, it emerges.
Leaders don’t create culture; members of the organisation do’ (p. 95). This school of thought
is well documented by Deshpande and Webster’s (1989) last three paradigms–organizational
cognition, organizational symbolism and the structural psychodynamic perspective. Other
writers who subscribe to this perspective include Louis (1980), Geertz (1973) and Green
(1988).
It is clear that faced with two such views of culture, management writers and practitioners
have favoured the managerial, social engineering type approach. The idiosyncratic approach
which views culture as residing in all members of the organization and inviolable is seen as
the ‘philosophy of despair’ by the massed legions of practitioners and academics who subscribe
to the view that management is both purposeful and prescriptive.
Breaking down into the three positions adds rigour to the five paradigm model by focusing
away from research methodology onto more practical ways of introducing SMP in a wide
spectrum of cultures (Table 2). The justification for concentrating on the contingency school
is primarily the failure of the managerial approach, but also the fact that the ‘leave alone’
recipe of the idiosyncratic school would mean that many organizations would miss out on the
observable benefits that SMP brings. By exploring the middle ground the aim is to suggest an
approach that makes SMP a practical managerial task.
The contingency school
Piercy and Giles (1989) marked the beginning of the contingency school of thought as
applied to marketing planning. They realized from experience of failed implementation
programmes that a prescriptive approach is not appropriate to many companies. Instead, they
developed an issue-based approach which is illogical according to existing rational models but
logical and therefore appropriate in relation to the way the organization works and views
itself. The issues faced by the company affect the way the planning process is introduced. If,
for example, the marketing audit shows limitations compared to the ideal posited by Kotler et
al. (1977), this is accommodated, rather than remedial work undertaken. Although it can be
argued that this approach was a major step forward there are a number of assumptions
underpinning this framework which are open to debate.
(1) The consultant=trainer is viewed as the main change agent within the action research
methodology.
(2) Culture is viewed as a dependent variable to be manipulated within the change process.
(3) Culture’s role is clearly subservient to the implementation of the strategic planning
process.
(4) The impact of an enduring culture on a newly implemented SMP process is not really
covered. Given they assume that culture can be manipulated this is not so surprising.
The position taken herein is that culture will often be more influential and slower to
change than the typical implementation period for SMP which is approximately 3 years
according to McDonald’s (1982) empirical research.
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TABLE 2.
Different models of culture and their impact on SMP
Basic view on organizational
culture ?
Culture’s relationship to SMP ?
Subdivisions within models ?
Academic apologists ?
Contingency
Idiosyncratic
Organizations have cultures which
can be managed within the `hard’
Ss (strategy, structure, systems and
skills)
Culture is something to be
changed if it is not in harmony
with SMP
Organizational culture is an issue
in strategic planning whose
relevance and influence varies from
one situation to the next
Culture needs to be taken account
of, not changed, when developing
appropriate SMP processes.
Culture determines the SMP
process, not vice versa
Issue-based, `rationale’ process and
issue-based culture driven process
Individuals make and are the culture.
Culture is inviolable and changes
internally not as a result of external
change initiatives
Culture operates on SMP as any
change process: it interprets and
eventually shapes such initiatives to
become acceptable and congruent
with the culture
Changed through symbols and
organic, evolves slowly
Piercy and Giles (1989)
Beyer and Trick (1984, 1988) and
Smirich (1983)
Action research and participative
action research
Ethnomethodology=phenomenology
Comparative=`ideal’ cultures,
`filtered’ culture and sympathetic
change
Hofstede (1980), Peters and
Waterman (1982) Leppard and
McDonald (1991) and Smith and
Piper (1990)
Open systems theory
SAKER AND SMITH
Research approach (after Morgan
and Smirich, 1980) ?
Managerial
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(5) The way that culture interprets and amends the SMP process is underplayed. Culture,
whilst seen as important, is still viewed as a static not dynamic influence which
continues to interact and influence SMP from its introduction through to its
‘robust’=self-sustainable stage and beyond.
Despite these criticisms Piercy and Giles’ (1989) approach goes a long way to recognizing the
complexity and multidimensional nature of marketing planning.
Greenley and Oktemgil (1996) argued that the increasingly diverse nature of the research
underpinning this area is consistent with the paradigmatic development of knowledge (Kuhn,
1970; Deshpande, 1983; Arndt, 1985; Gioia and Pitre, 1990; Pfeffer, 1993). The work of
Piercy and Morgan (1990, 1994) has taken this further with their proposal for a multidimensional model of marketing planning, based on an analytical dimension, such as
traditional planning formats, a behavioural dimension such as managerial perceptions and
commitment and an organizational dimension such as corporate culture. Empirical support for
this approach has come from Greenley and Bayus (1994) and Piercy and Morgan (1994).
However, even taking this broader approach the factor underpinning the other dimensions is
the culture of the organization.
DEVELOPING A CULTURE-DRIVEN CONTINGENCY MODEL FOR SMP
The position taken as to the role of culture in an organization and its impact on
organizational change will obviously be reflected in the approaches adopted when attempting
to introduce SMP into an organization. It is argued that the managerial school would lead to
an open system approach which majors on the role of the professional expert. A contingency
approach should lead to some derivation of action research while the idiosyncratic model
would necessitate some form of ethnomethodological system. This last approach is not
considered in this paper as by definition it would inevitably be organization specific and it
would be difficult to draw any real generalizations.
Open system s – the professional expert
The most common type of applied social research is what can be called the ‘professional
expert model’. In this approach, the researcher=consultant is called by a client organization–or
talks his or her way in–to study a set of problems and to recommend a course of action. In
this context, the consultant is completely in control of the research process except to the
extent that the client organization limits some of the research options. It can be argued that
this is the ‘normal’ stance taken by academic staff when attempting to implement marketing
planning in an organization. The role of the ‘expert’, as has been suggested above, becomes a
contentious issue in certain cultures. Due to the high failure rate of this approach certain of
its proponents (Leppard and McDonald, 1991) have argued that formalized marketing
planning is only likely to work in mature organizations with the support of top management.
The expert is viewed as the change agent in the organization.
An alternative approach put forward by Saker and Speed (1992) stopped far short of
moving totally into a contingency approach. Drawing on work done in the area of strategic
management (Lindblom, 1968; Quinn, 1978; Ackoff, 1979; Mintzberg, 1979, 1990), they
suggested that an incremental approach be taken in contrast to the synoptic linear process
SAKER AND SMITH
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TABLE 3.
cesses
Differences between synoptic and incremental strategic decision pro-
Characteristic
Synoptic processes
Incremental processes
1. Motive for initiation
The process is initiated in response
to problems or opportunities that
appear during constant surveillance
It is directed at achieving a specified
goal or future intended state
The process is initiated in response to
a problem or dissatisfaction with the
current state
It is directed at achieving a
modification of the current state. The
process is remedial
The remedial change outcome is
considered at the same time as the
means for achieving it is analysed. The
processes are intertwined and
simultaneous
The final choice of an alternative is
made by combining the considered
alternatives (means) and their possible
consequences (ends) and
simultaneously selecting the one that
yields the most desired outcome.
Decision quality is judged by the
agreement achieved in choosing an
alternative (the means to an end)
When making individual decisions it
considers only a few alternatives to
the status quo as alternative actions
and only a restricted range of
consequences in their evaluation; all
possible factors are not considered
Little attempt is made to integrate
consciously the individual decisions
that could possibly affect one another.
The strategy is viewed as loosely
linked group of decisions that are
handled individually
2. Concepts of goals
3. Relationship
between means
(alternatives) and ends
(goals)
The goal is identified before and
independent of the analysis of
alternatives. Decision making is an
`ends-means’ process
4. Concept of choice
The final choice of an alternative is
dependent on how it contributes to
the acievement of the goal.
Decision quality is only known
when it is shown that the decision
provides the best means to the
specified goal
5. Analytic
comprehensiveness
When making individual decisions it
attempts to be exhaustive in the
identification and selection of goals
and the generation and evaluation
of alternatives. All factors are
considered
Conscious attempts are made to
integrate decisions that compose
the overall strategy to insure that
they reinforce one another. The
strategy is viewed as consciously
developed and an integrated whole
6. Integrative
comprehensiveness
Source: Frederickson and Mitchell (1984)
advocated in the major marketing texts. The differences between synoptic and incremental
strategic decision processes are shown in Table 3.
The weakness of this approach is that it attempts to achieve the same planning process but
by a different route. Incremental change is undoubtedly more acceptable particularly in
organizations where the cultural dimension is problematic but it falls short of a true
contingency view of the planning process. The incremental process still holds that primacy is
given to the views of the outside consultant who remains the custodian and director of the
process. It fails to confront the real issue of the organization’s culture and fails to pass any real
ownership of the process over to the organization. This is a critical weakness and it can be
argued that this is only rectified by taking a true contingency view.
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135
Towards a culture- driven contingency approach to S MP
Piercy and Giles (1989) acknowledged the weaknesses of the expert approach. Their
argument was that, to obtain effective change, the process should be ‘bottom up’, taking on
an issue-based, tactical view as opposed to the strategic stance usually associated with SMP.
They suggested (by implication) that action research is the most appropriate vehicle for
implementing marketing planning. It can be argued that the approach is by its nature bound
to be more empathetic to the organization’s culture as the issues that arise emerge from the
organization. The research takes its cues, questions, puzzles, problems and issues from the
perceptions of the practitioners or participants. It encapsulates the development according to
the boundaries of the local context. It builds descriptions and theories within the context and
tests them through ‘inervention experiments’. The issues that the participant’s raise are
worked on, tested and change is supposedly generated by moving from the tactical level to
the strategic via incremental steps. The academic outsider is not viewed as the expert but as a
change agent or catalyst who can facilitate these changes. The theoretical arguments against a
straight action research approach have been covered above but at the operational level the
weakness is that the consultant is still outside the process itself and he or she still leads the
process once the issues have been raised. The process may be incremental and the change
slower but it still fails to correct the potential dissonance between the process and the culture.
To a large extent the expert turns ‘facilitator’ which is likely to lead to greater success for the
process as a whole but may still run counter to the culture of the organization.
Greenley and Oktemgil (1996) advocated that a fuller understanding of the contextual
situation of marketing planning is required, involving consideration of a much wider range of
organizational dimensions. Although this view is consistent with the development of an
understanding of the contextual nature of marketing planning it can be argued that an
alternative approach can be adopted. This would recognize the complexity of the context
within which SMP takes place but instead of trying to explicitly understand it and then
design a process of implementation, the context would simply be allowed to drive the
planning process. This is possible via the use of participatory action research.
PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH
For those organizations with strong influential cultures which can be viewed as dissonant to
‘new’ ideas inherent in SMP, action research is likely to remain problematic for the
participants to accept. In such a situation the authors have successfully used a process
incorporating participatory action research, a form of action research that involves participants
as both subjects and learners. Whyte (1991) described the development of participatory action
research as having been influenced by the development of sociotechnical analysis (Trist, 1981)
and by democracy research in Scandinavia (Thorsud, 1977; Elden, 1979). It is based on the
proposition that causal inferences about the behaviour of human beings are more likely to be
valid and enactable when the human beings in question participate in building and testing
them. Hence, it aims at creating an environment in which participants give and obtain valid
information, make free and informed choices (including the choice to participate) and
generate internal commitment to the results of their inquiry. One of the underlying aims is to
generate self-reflection on the process in which the participants are involved. However, in
contrast to other approaches, the organizations are encouraged to treat all factors including the
consultant as being of equal weight and potential importance. This promotes both the
SAKER AND SMITH
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ownership of the process by the organization and places the onus on the organization to set
the agenda for taking the planning process forward. A model of this research approach is
provided in Fig. 1.
The critical elements within this framework revolve around the ability of the framework to
generate a learning process. The dialogue for mutual learning is a critical element as it moves
the organization to move towards a ‘local’ theory approach. This is simply that sustainable
views are developed that apply only to that situation and context. Local theory by its nature
has specific application but has been shaped and is embedded in the culture of the
organization. Due to the nature of its development the ownership of the theory becomes a
natural follow on. The group action and reflection then allows for the diffusion of learning
from experience by all involved.
Putting this more specifically into the context of SMP, participatory action research allows
the planning process to start from what the organization believes to be important or pressing.
An example of this was found when developing SMP with a regional opera house. The
PARTICIPANTS
OUTSIDERS
FRAMEWORK IMPLICIT
FRAMEWORK/
INDIVIDUAL AND FRAGMENTED
THEORY-BASED
ACTION `THEORY’
ACTION `THEORY’
PARTICIPATING IN CONGENERATIVE
DIALOGUE FOR MUTUAL LEARNING
LOCAL THEORY
NEW SHARED FRAMEWORK/
EXPLICIT GROUP ACTION
THEORY
TESTING THROUGH
SUPPORTED ACTION
NEW THEORETICAL
UNDERSTANDING
REFLECTION ON EXPERIENCE
DIFFUSION OF LEARNING
Figure 1. Participatory action research learning – a co-generative model
(adapted from Elden and Levin (1991).
TOWARDS CULTURE-DRIVEN STRATEGIC MARKETING PLANNING
137
process started by exploring why a coach laid on to bring people from a neighbouring town
was not being used. Previous market research undertaken in the town plus population
profiling suggested that the town had a high percentage of people who would attend the type
of production offered by the opera house. Further work showed that the people from the
neighbouring town in fact were drawn towards a major city to its north and that the range of
hills between the town and the opera house acted as a major psychological barrier. By
generating a ‘local theory’ or new understanding of the market-place the organization then
started to analyse its customer base in a different way leading to alternative marketing
initiatives with more realistically framed objectives. By starting the process from a problem
issue for the organization the iteration allows for the refinement of ideas which become
framed within a structure of SMP that is organization specific.
P articipatory action research and the barriers to S MP
Greenley and Oktemgil (1996) summarized some of the barriers to organizational learning as
being the following.
(1) Persistence with existing strategies (Langer, 1975; Kiesler and Sproull, 1982).
(2) External attribution of performance failure (Fischoff and Beyth, 1975; Ford and Baucus,
1987).
(3) Simplistic perceptions of the environment (Tversky and Kahnemann, 1981; R usso and
Schoemaker, 1991; Jennings et al., 1992).
(4) Internal conflict (Wiersma and Bantel, 1993).
Participatory action research by its very nature works in a way that tends to minimize the
influence of the above. The outside focus and self-reflection address each of the issues and
make self-delusion difficult. If, as Greenley and Oktemgil (1996) stated ‘the potential for
learning from marketing planning is to be effectively realized, the learning role of marketing
planning must be incorporated in to marketing plans’ (p. 34), then processes such as
participatory action research should be explored to facilitate not only the development of a
plan but also the necessary learning that should come from this.
In addition to the above, Harris (1996), when discussing the impediments to planning,
proposed that any planning process should be ‘organization specific’. Participatory action
research, by its very nature, has to be organization specific and by being problem centred
creates a motivation and sense of purpose within the organization to embrace both planning
and also its subsequent implementation.
CONCLUSION
The discussion of the barriers to planning dates back to the 1960s. Leppard and McDonald’s
(1991) paper synthesized previous work and concluded that the two biggest barriers to the
implementation of marketing planning could be summarized as culture and cognition. In a
variety of forms almost all subsequent work in this area has focused on these two constructs.
The debate over the impact of culture has been covered in this paper and it has been argued
that by using participatory action research the cultural barrier can be addressed. The planning
process that emerges will be the result of and reflect the cultural dimension of the
organization. Although not discussed at the same length it is apparent that participatory action
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research also addresses the issue of cognition being a barrier due to lack of knowledge and
skills Nevis et al. (1995) argued that for organizational learning to be effective, the process
used must acquire, disseminate and use information. Greenley and Oktemgil (1996) observed
that the marketing planning process provides a structured discipline for achieving these facets
of learning. The contention of this paper is that the SMP process itself may give rigour but
whether it is successfully taken on board and integrated as part of the organization’s activities
will depend on how the process is actually introduced and assimilated into the organization.
Using participatory action research the organizational learning through the concept of ‘local’
theory and its subsequent dissemination and reflection promotes both knowledge acquisition
and skill development. By making the transition from action research to participatory action
research it is our view that the removal of the outside expert and the level of joint reflection
and learning is such that the culture of the organization is likely to shape the progress as
opposed to hindering its development. It could be argued that this is the nearest possible
position to a culturally driven SMP process.
As different types of organizations, in particular from the non-commercial sector, begin to
take on SMP it is going to be necessary for both academics and facilitators to come up with
alternative ways of implementing SMP in cultures that would not normally embrace such
approaches. Participatory action research is a potential way forward allowing the culture to be
a driving force behind the SMP as opposed to a barrier.
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